System Error
by DeftTheFireFox
Summary: Right after volume 6, Team RWBY and company will come to find that just because they got to Atlas does not mean that they are done just yet. How will they save Weiss right after she gets taken, how will Ironwood take the truth about Ozma. Will we ever see Glynda again. The answer to that is Maybe.
1. Everything always happens so much

**All characters belong to RoosterTeeth etc.**

* * *

Life is an unknown variable. It is something impossible to define but at the same time it is easy for some to understand while others can't even grasp the concept of it. It takes strength to try to understand the impossible, strength I do not have. I could act all tall and strong but I know that I will never become the unlikely; I will never truly be alive.

This is what has lead me to end up in this position, standing out in the cold waiting for a stolen aircraft to land with a little girl who ran away from home. It had just arrived and very clearly out of fuel because they didn't even notice us when they landed. Landed makes it sound so elegant, their wreck collided with the ground. Several loud groans could be heard as the doors slid open, and along with a cubic ton of smoke several bodies flocked.

Several children of questionable character practically dove at the ground kissing it and proclaiming their love for it as an elderly woman emerged and said, "Oh please that wasn't even the worst landing we made today!"

"Yeah, but the other times we didn't have to deal with tons of smoke," Declared the pink one with impossible fervor. This was followed suite with a tall green man questioning, "How did you even start that fire?"

"Well I would have to guess that it was because of that rough housing earlier,"

"You say that like you weren't a part of it!" declared a seemingly under-dressed faunus girl. The elderly lady made a sound that you would expect an old bitter lady to make. This was followed up by the red one saying, "Well at least we made it, and we already have a welcome party to bring us to the General."

They all turned their attention to us when she said that, I hardly think that ten robots are considered a welcome party. That was when Weiss spoke up, "I don't think they are the welcome party."

* * *

It was like a horror show, we 'arrived' at Atlas only to find out they were here. My father had sent a collection squad to bring me back to him. I cannot believe the lengths he would go to keep me under his influence. The middle one in the odd suit of armor the only clearly human one; it seemed almost too small to fit a person inside of it, the helmet looked like it tight on his head with a very slim black line going over his eyes. He said, "Weiss Schnee this unit is here to return you to Schnee Manor."

"And if she doesn't want to go?" Yang questioned.

"Then this unit is authorized to use force," It was like he was mocking me from afar. I cannot even comprehend how he found out that I would be here; I mean this morning we didn't even know we would be here. Qrow butted in to say, "Look we aren't here for a fight so if you would take us to Ironwood that would be great."

I couldn't put my finger on it but he sounds a little different for some reason, sort of like when we saw Ren again at the Vytal festival. This was followed up by the suit of armor just turning his head to face Qrow and saying, "Is this unit to assume you will not give up Ms. Schnee?"

"Yes," several of us said while brandishing our weapons, we could probably dissuade them from a fight if we looked intimidating enough. That was when the man in the armor reached for his right leg, when he was there it opened up and a massive gun slid out. We all gave each other confused looks not expecting them to fight back, when he did the same thing with his left leg. I guess Yang will have to compete for amputee of the month now. We were all braced for a fight when Ruby said, "Look we don't have to fight we can just tal-"

She was cut off by a gunshot, it hit her and she went flying. The rest of them pulled out there guns and pointed them at us and began firing. JNR broke off to get the robots while Blake tried to attend to Ruby because her weapon was broken. Qrow charged right at the Suit man with intent to crush something, while he was getting closer he spun his sword to block all of the bullets being shot at him. This was when the suit man jumped; trying to get distance won't work. He continually fired at Qrow like it was a holiday and the celebration was to shoot people. When he hit the ground Yang charged at him and threw a left hook, only for him to shoot her in the chest. Qrow shouted, "No!"

She fell to the ground and Qrow charged once again, this time more open. Letting him get shot as well, it was like he didn't care what he did just as long as he got to me. That was when he said, "Eliminating variables."

He shot at JNR while they were distracted dealing with the robots, he hit each of them and they went down like a bag of rocks. I couldn't let him do this I pull out Myrtenaster and created a glyph under me to launch me towards him. He couldn't stop this I wouldn't let my friends suffer for my father's greed. He turned to me and pointed his gun at me, I stopped right before I hit him and he fired. It hit like a bull and I'm pretty sure it was mostly electricity.

* * *

"Target subdued. Returning to command," I notified command or more specifically Jacques, only to hear him shout in my ear, "Good, now bring her home. We have a lot to talk about."

"What about the other units?"

"What about them? Their dime a dozen we can buy more." I grit my teeth and picked up Ms. Schnee with my left arm. This was when her two of her friends charged, a small boy with a cane and Ms. Black. They both swung down trying to cut me down before I could take their friend from them, only one of them had a sword. I shot her in the chest and let the small one hit me on the left shoulder, it didn't pack as much force as he no doubt hoped. We stood there for a second while he was waiting for something to happen. Nothing did.

The airship finally arrived while we stared at each other; his confidence wavered when he pulled back the can and said, "Will he really be happy that you killed his daughter?"

"She isn't dead just unconscious along with the rest of them." He looked surprised by that almost like he expected all of his friends to be dead. He looked back up to me and said, "We'll come for her and we won't lose next time."

"Understood, preparing for next encounter," I said over my shoulder as I climbed onto the aircraft. I put her in a seat as we flew away as I went up to the pilot and said, "Package secure, returning to command."

"Yeah I know I picked you up."

* * *

It felt like I had been hit by a car, I think. When I opened my eyes I heard Oscar say something, "What do you mean calm down, Weiss was just taken and we were utterly beaten!"

Was he talking to Ozpin, great I hope he doesn't make it a habit of only coming out at the worst of times, then Uncle Qrow say, "Look she's a big girl and we aren't really in any shape to go get her."

"Well it doesn't matter what condition we're in we have to go get her." I said as I stood up. Oscar ran over to me trying to steady me as I was still shaky on my feet. All of us were getting back up and we looked like we had been hit by a truck, Nora looked no worse for wear for some reason. Jaune said, "Well now what do we do?"

"I would be more focused on why you are here." We all heard a loud and abrasive voice say. We all turned to see General Ironwood getting right off of an aircraft looking like he rushed here when he heard we got in. Uncle Qrow stood up and said, "Well Jimmy I've had quite a day, So why don't we talk about this away from prying ears."

"Qrow I am one second away from picking each of you up and throwing you off of Atlas one at a time, so you better be more urgent with your explanation!" You could practically see the vein in his head throbbing as he was yelling at Uncle Qrow. Yet Qrow looked like he was ready to fire back any instant, it was going to be a battle if I let this continue. So before Qrow could say anything I said while gesturing to the relic, "Mr. General Ironwood we need to talk."

"Oh, that kind of talk"

* * *

When I finally regain consciousness I was greeted by an oh so familiar ceiling, which I was back at home once again and that meant he was here. He would be here soon ready to chastise me for running away and how I should just be his little pet. I waited expecting him to be here any time… Who am I kidding he couldn't be bothered to come and yell at me. I would have to go to him, when I got up out of bed I found I was in my night gown and I had by the smell of it been bathed. Suffice it to say I felt violated. I threw the first thing I could find on, a dress with a coat that cinched around my neck with poofy sleeves. It was dull blue at the frills with a black seem. It was almost if my previous combat outfits were mixed. I then marched out of my room to find an all too familiar suit of armor, standing right across the hall. I gave him a sour look when I said, "What do you want?"

"Mr. Schnee requests your presence immediately upon regain consciousness." I was about to yell at him when I thought he's nothing more than a robot who probably doesn't have feelings. I went to his office ready to throw him out the window when I came close to him. When I finally arrived at his door I was frozen there for a second before the man right behind me said, "No matter how long you wait he will still be in there."

"Thank you for the worst advice imaginable." This somehow propelled me to enter the office with little thought he was on the phone with somebody from the company, "Well why don't you just make them work harde-"

"Hang up!" I yelled at him as soon as I entered the room. He looked more annoyed than anything, he calmly said, "I'll have to call you back."

"What was that!?" I yelled at him as he hung up the phone, he just gave me a slight glare and said oh so calmly, "Weiss it's good to see you."

"Good to see me, you had me kidnapped!"

"You left me with no choice after running away from home I had no choice but to retrieve my-"I cut him off right there, "To retrieve what, your property? Well I hate to break it to you, I won't be staying long."

"And how will you escape. Ask Klein was fired and Nickel will be guarding you the entire time." He said as he waved to the suit of armor, he then proceeded to remove his helmet. He was a tall man with shiny silver hair and blue eyes, he looked oddly familiar giving off the sense that I've seen him before. He said, "I will be protecting you from here on out."

"You really think this will stop me. I will get out –"Jacques interrupted once again by saying, "No you are going to stay here and stop acting like you can be that hero you so fondly think of yourself. It is time to grow up and stop thinking of fantasies."

"No." I said firmly and he moved towards me to say, "You will do what you are told."

"Never," He then raised his hand to hit me. I closed my eyes to wait for the inevitable connect, I could swear I heard the whoosh through the air but it never hit. When I opened my eyes his hand was stopped an inch away face, Nickel had stopped it before he connected. Jacques looked none too pleased as he questioned, "What are you doing?"

"Protecting Weiss Schnee," he looked at him with the most amount of rage I've ever seen in my life but that was not what surprised me. I don't think that Nickel cared that he just angered the man that hired him. He let go and Jacques rubbed his wrist while he looked at me and said, "You will stay put and not cause any more commotion."

"Make me." I could feel his blood pressure rising. He once again had the look of someone who wants to hit me but he just commanded Nickel, "Take her away. We're done for now."

"You are currently requested to leave," Nickel said as he grabbed my and dragged me out. I turned back to Jacques and said with the intent on leaving the minute Nickel let me go, "Goodbye forever."

* * *

**Please like, comment, and subscribe. Or you know don't you have free will and I don't control you so whatever.**

**Nickel will be the primary focus of the first few parts of this story, and this takes place right after volume 6. It will go on until I get bored or forget about it entirely. **


	2. We Can't have Faith in Everyone

**All Characters belong to RoosterTeeth etc.**

* * *

After getting dragged out of the office he immediately let go of me. I waited out there for a few seconds filled with rage and had no idea what to do with it. He was so adamant in keeping me here well I would just have to escape, again… This was getting old. I made my way back to my room to get Myrtenaster. It was a brisk full speed run to my room only taking a minute. When I was inside I immediately moved to its case, I clicked the clasp and opened it. Nothing it was an empty case. I gasped a little as Nickel said behind me, "Under Mr. Schnee's orders your weapon was destroyed to keep you from rebelling anymore."

"How could he do this to me?" I wanted to scream with rage once again that day but I get the feeling these screams wouldn't affect him. I said to him, "Well I'll be leaving without it then."

"Negative, Weiss Schnee is to remain in Schnee Manor Airship indefinitely."

"Watch me." I said as I opened the window and jumped out. It was not the most elegant of plans but I could just walk out, and use my glyphs as stairs to get over any fences that I encounter on the way. Then I just had to steal a ship and fly back to Atlas. Or I could take control of the house and fly myself back. This was going to go fine until I came around a corner to the courtyard to find Nickel was standing in my way. He looked like he had walked here and was just waiting to for me to show up.

"You are not to leave Schnee Manor in the near future." I walked pasted him to get to the nearest aircraft. He didn't make a move to stop me, he just said, "There are no aircrafts inbound for Schnee Manor in the near future. Any and all aircraft will only arrive on request and until then there is no way out."

"Well there are always escape pods."

"Negative all escape pods have been disabled; Mr. Schnee said he would not like to risk it." I looked at him with stunned silence, I knew he was determined but this was much farther than I expected. This was when my favorite person came out to rub sand in the wound, Whitley. He looked more or less the same, still the extraordinarily egotistical grin of someone who has everything.

"Well is it not good to see my darling big sister once again. How was your little trip?" He asked like he didn't really care. So I answered him with very little care.

"Fine, how was never leaving the Manor grounds. Still afraid the White Fang is coming for you?" I said trying to play on his fear, it worked as I could see the little look in the back of his eyes shift from smug to anger in a second and then back once again.

"Well at least I can leave, unlike some. How was your last short taste of freedom?" I moved closer to him this time, "It was almost as short as that skirt, dear Weiss you should bundle up your goods more otherwise you won't be able to sell them later."

"Calling me a whore wherever could you get these insults, do you have to focus group them?" I was practically right in front of his face now. He may have been right a skirt in the snow may not have been the best option but I wasn't going to let him know that.

"Well, being the heir to Schnee Dust Company does have some perks now doesn't it," He was proud of himself for that one only to continue on by saying, "I will one day control all of it, even you," he said as he pointed at Nickel, "Now why don't you fetch me some nice coffee."

"Negative, requests for service must be sent through Jacques Schnee, or if he is indisposed Weiss Schnee," he was awfully robotic, but that isn't what I was focused on, "if you require coffee then the person to ask would not be me."

"Listen here you overgrown piece of-" I cut him off before he could continue with that thought.

"Does that mean that I can tell you to let me go?"

"That is one of the few things Mr. Schnee has ordered me to do. Anything else within reason is acceptable although," Christmas came early this year and I would use this to set myself free. But before that Whitley chimed in once again.

"You listen to her and not me then what is even the point of you." He moved to hit Nickel (oh this should be humorous to see). With a sloppy move he slapped Nickel. It took a few seconds but Whitley was sitting there clutching his wrist like he had broken it (I swear I could see him cry), and Nickel was unfazed. This was great. Nickel just stared down at him; I could see nothing in his eyes. He wasn't angry or surprised, he just stood there waiting. I waited for a reply only for Whitley to mutter while fleeing, "I'll make sure you suffer for this."

He just stood there like nothing had happened. We were both outside in the snow waiting for the other to reply but he didn't. I had to break the tension, "Anything I ask?"

* * *

Ironwood was speechless and rightfully so. We had told him everything and I get the feeling that was too much, shocked silence. Qrow had taken a back seat to this conversation leaving the children to explain all about Ozma and Salem. He looked like someone had run over his dog but he said, "So there is no way to kill her."

"That is correct. But that do-" he cut me off to say.

"Then all of this was for nothing we can't even protect ourselves from something like that. And where is Ozma or Ozpin during all of this?" He had the fire taken from him but if a bunch of children can deal with it so can he.

"Look it's not like she can just waltz in here and take the relic. We can still defend ourselves from her." Jaune said trying to rally him to help while distracting him from Oscar. But this just soured his mood even more.

"Right so you thought, why not take the thing she is after and just what exactly? Hide it in Atlas? If she is unkillable, then I don't even know if I want one of them here much less two."

"It may seem hopeless, but you can't just run away from this forever." Blake said while trying to rally him.

"That isn't the issue, I don't want to make Atlas more of a target than it already is." He said with confidence. Like he was ready to take on the world, but you could feel the hollowness. Qrow just stood up to speak.

"Where is all that boisterous talk about having the largest army on Remnant? If you do then we should be able to protect it from her."

"Qrow you must be drunk if you think that we could take on an immortal unkillable witch. The answer is that I will not risk lives protecting something that will only draw more attention here."

"James you can't be serious, you were gun-ho at vale and now you're abandoning the mission." He was almost making a good argument but if I've learned anything recently he is terrible at arguing.

"We will continue to protect the relic of creation but we will not take on another one. Now take that somewhere else." He was finished arguing and definitely not the type to go back on what he says. That wouldn't stop me.

"No, you can't just say no," I said looking at him with the same eyes that froze a Leviathan yesterday. He was very clearly not ready for what I was about to say.

"Ms. Rose you think you-"

"No! We have sacrificed and lost too much to stand here for you to say no. You lead an army to Vale with the intention of protecting it; well I'm here to tell you that you will be remembered as the guy that started the end of the world, a failure." I paused not knowing what to say but I had to continue, "You have a country to lead and if you fail then you'll just be bringing them down with you. You have to put them first, and yourself second. Your nation deserves a great leader and I think you can do it. Plus you either help us or we will do it anyway without your help, and you can ask the last person who said no to helping us since she is still probably fishing her robot out of the bay. We have a mission and not you or anyone will get in our way."

"That doesn't me-" he was interrupted by the door sliding open to see an angry Winter. She looked like when she and Qrow fought but this time it was directed elsewhere.

"What is the meaning of letting Jacques take Weiss?" It was odd to see her without her composure, which for me a person who had only one conversation with her then must have been really out there for James and Qrow because they had similar looks of shock on their faces. She continued to stare at him before saying, "Well!"

"Winter I believe that you are interrupting a conversation that you shouldn't be in the middle of." He said trying to get her to read the room to no avail. She continually got more furious when she said, "Well you made me your winter maiden for a reason so I think that allows me a little leeway with when I want to question you."

The stunned silence was palpable. It stood there for a few seconds as some of the rage dispersed from her. This calm was only ruined when Qrow said, "What!"

It erupted from there multiple questions from everyone asked all at once. She took one look at Qrow and said, "This is one of those times that you should take that flask and shove it in your face to keep yourself quite."

Ironwood was a statue now having to deal with her probably put him back on his game and out of negotiation mode. So he said, "Winter this is neither the place nor the time to talk about that, and Jacques was there before we got there is all."

"Oh bullsh-"

"Did she just say the winter maiden?" The look on her face showed that she had forgotten that she said that along with a small blush. But before either of them answered Oscar spoke up, "Uh there is someone that would like to speak."

"Who might that be?"

"Ozpin," His eyes glowed for a second and a curious noise could be heard from Ironwood and Winter. When he spoke again he sounded different almost older and more refined, "Look I may have angered you in the past but right now is the time for-"

He was cut off by Jaune punching him in the face, not enough to send him flying but enough to knock him over. Jaune then continued to beat on him for several seconds with protests from Ozpin, Jaune began shouting several things that most considered impolite. Ren and Yang grabbed Jaune off of him and dragged him away still shouting profanities. When he was trying to stand Nora went over and started kicking him. To Winter and Ironwood this must have looked like they were beating a child, when Nora finally finish before he got up he said, "Anyone else? I would rather not expend anymore of Oscar's energy getting up for another one of you to knock him down again."

He meant this rhetorically but still Qrow spit on him and Yang went to throw a punch. It never connected as he got out of the way before it did. He shouted at her, "Are you crazy Oscar can't take one of your punches much less survive."

"Fine," she said bitterly with a bitter expression. When he got situated again to give his speech right before he said anything, she also spit on him. While he was wiping that off of his face Ironwood said, "Who is this and why does he deserve the brunt of your hate?"

"Give it a minute Jimmy," He scowled at Qrow as he said that.

"Are you done?" We all gave our own little yes sign and he waited to continue. When we were done he said, "James this is no time to be divided, we have a chance to protect the world if you just hide the relic of Knowledge with Creation."

"They already tried that, and I still have no idea why I should listen to a 14 year old."

"Right, the important part, my name is first name was Ozma but the last thing you called me was Ozpin." With that it clicked in his head, he looked at him like with more surprise than I think he expected. Ironwood proceeded to put his hand on Ozpins shoulder; they had a tender moment of meeting each other again. That was ruined by Ironwood picking him up by the throat with that same arm.

"Unkillable. Ozpin you could have told us that." Winter was just standing there with so little idea with what was going on around her.

* * *

"Now isn't that better." I said as Nickel came into my room dressed in a similar fashion to how Klein dressed, an embellished vest along with suit most of a suit underneath.

"This provides significantly less protection than my combat suit," he didn't look uncomfortable, just unclear as to why he wasn't wearing armor.

"You'll be fine, and my cake?"

"Here." He put out what had to be the most abysmal attempt at a cake I had seen in my life. It looked like it had been put in the oven, been forgotten about for a thousand years and then taken out and frosted. It didn't even look edible; I am sure that if I eat that I will die of poisoning.

"I can't eat that it looks putrid. Take it back and make me another."

"Understood." He picked it up and left. When he was out of ear shot I got up and began planning my escape once again.

When I was out of her sight she began speaking to herself again. Likely planning her escape from this castle, it would be unassailable of me to assume that she didn't want to escape. I returned the cake to the kitchen and told the chef that she didn't like it, her reply, "Of course she didn't like. I mean look at it who made this train wreck?"

"That is irrelevant she requested a new one."

"Nickel the master requests your presence," A butler said as he shuffled into the kitchen. He was out of breath definitely because he ran here.

"Why?"

"I don't know he sounded angry though."

"Understood, please bring the cake to Ms. Schnee when it is done." I then left the Kitchen and made my way to his office. It was an impossibly large house that made little sense as to why it needed to be this large. When I finally made it through the maze of this house the door to his office was open as he was no doubt expecting me. When I enter there was Whitley looking smug while Jacques just continued to work. He worked for several minutes before he said, "Whitley tells me you assaulted him."

"That is incorrect; he hurt himself after attempting to slap-" before I finished the report a whir of an engine was heard. They likely didn't hear it when they looked at me intent on finishing my chewing out.

"Well, we're waiting."

"When is the next transport scheduled?"

"That is irrelevant- Why?"

"Ms. Schnee is about to escape."

"What." Jacques tried to question as I ran out of his office towards the courtyard. It took a few minutes but when I reached the window I saw a ship, it had four wings with a ribbon each. Weiss was running towards the ship as another woman was waiting on the ramp down. There was no time to waste as jumped out the window shattering it in the process. There was a good distance to make up she was just barely to the ship by the time it made it to her. I shouted, "Weiss Schnee you are to remain on manor grounds at all times."

* * *

How did he know they were here let alone get here in time? It was odd but I didn't even need to question it when Winter said, "She's coming with me."

"Negative, she is to remain on Schnee manner at all times." Everyone began to emerge from the ship and line up acting like they were ready for a fight. I had no idea how they all managed to get here and with her but that wasn't the most pressing issue.

"You're in no position to make me stay." Since he changed out of his armor he should be unarmed. I then continued by shouting, "No one owns me."

"You are to remain at Schnee manor," A small hissing sound could be heard, followed by an audible click.

"Yeah you already said that. You're like a broken record, can you say something else." Yang said while his legs lit up a little bit.

"You are to remain at Schnee manor," followed by his legs splitting open revealing the pistols he had earlier. He pulled them out and aimed them but before he could do that he was hit in the chest with a large impact. Winter had created a glyph to send him across the courtyard into a wall.

"Now let's get out of here." She said as we all piled into the airship. I was dumbfounded how they had thought it was the right thing to come get me. I was greeted by friendly faces and Oscar covered in bruises. It was then followed by a hug from Winter who said, "Are you okay. Do I need to get you a doctor? Would you like a cake?"

"What no I'm fine I just need…" I looked around and saw everyone giving me the look of smug satisfaction. That begged the question, "What are you doing with everyone?"

"Well Ms. Schnee they all said they wouldn't leave without you." Qrow said as he stood there after acting like he saved the day. It felt good to be back in this warmth with my friends again, nothing like the icy feeling of Schnee manor. In the middle of my joy something landed on top of the airship, it was probably a grimm coming after the relic. That thought changed when I heard a gunshot. We were all stunned and yet none of us wanted to acknowledge it for fear of what we all already knew. That was when Maria said, "Well one of you has to deal with him now don't you."

We all looked back and leading all of our eyes to focus on Qrow. He looked left and right before he noticed all of our focus. Ruby said, "It would be best if the one to fight him could fly if they fell off."

"Then why would you send him his name is Qrow he's not an actual crow." Winter spoke up without a little hint of sarcasm or knowledge of his magic ability.

"Fine, but I'm only doing this because she said I couldn't."

"What are you talking about?" she said as he opened the door and jumped out. She looked awestruck as he fell only when he fell through a cloud did a small black bird fly out of the cloud and up to the top of the ship. There was a camera up there so we could see everything that was going on. When he got up there so was Nickel. He once again looked like this was all a typical Tuesday for him as if he didn't care that this was an incredibly terrifying situation. When Qrow landed right next to him he slid back a bit from the speed of the airship. When he got back up to Nickel he pulled out Harbinger and tapped on Nickels shoulder with the blade. Qrow swung his sword as Nickel turned, it barely missed his head. Before Qrow could reposition himself he was shot in the chest with the gun. He was launched off the ship but before he could turn into a bird Nickel shot him in the chest again this time with a wire that he attached to the Airship. Qrow was essentially dangling from a wire as we flew.

"Can Qrow turn into a bird?" asked Winter as we all just turned to her. We all looked at each other and said, "Well that didn't work."

"Now what, do we all go up there or one at a time?" Yang supplied.

"No if anyone of us we would all achieve the same fate as Qrow, I mean can we even walk up there" Blake stated.

"If we rushed him we could probably take him down before we get stopped, or launched." Ruby suggested.

"If we flip the ship we could knock him off." Winter tried to help.

"Yeah and Uncle Qrow," Yang interjected.

"Not unless he would be unwilling to attack." I stated as they all turned to me. I continued by saying, "Well I can walk up there with my glyphs and I can knock him off, since he probably can't attack me then I have the best chance."

Ruby's scroll rang, when we all turned to her she said, "Uncle Qrow?"

"WOULD SOMEONE PLEASE DO SOMETHING!"

"I'll be right up," Winter said into the scroll.

"Wait, no, you can't. He'll attack you."

"Yes but I can take it. We just got you out and I really don't want to risk you getting taken back, because he will never let you go if you do." When she moved to the door I grabbed her blade and ran out the door. I was out before they could stop me, and on the side of the ship everything was much more sideways. I climbed up and I get why Qrow was having such a hard time up there, the wind was pushing me back every second I was up there. He was unaffected once again, I tried to shout at him but I couldn't hear my own voice from all the wind rushing past. He said something as well but still nothing. That was when he moved towards me not ready for me to strike. When he got within a foot I pulled out her sword and stabbed him. It hit him in the face and went pretty deep. I would say I cut out his eye but when he turned back to me the skin over that section of his face was missing to reveal a metal skeleton. He was a machine.

"Return to Schnee Manor immediately," he said just close enough for me to hear him. I wouldn't, so I stabbed the blade into roof of the ship and began summoning something. I summoned the boarbatusk it launched right into him but he shot it before it could get too close. Then the knight, before he could strike shot down. Then the rapier wasp that died as well. I could summon anything yet at the same time nothing. I focused on something that pushed me harder than ever before, he was within a few feet of me by the time the paladin appeared. It was the one I killed to protect Velvet. When he saw that he seemed a little surprised, the first time I got him to show any emotion. Before he could react and fire at it, it hit him in the chest with one of his big fists launching him miles away. I shouted at him as he disappeared in the distance, "YOU'LL NEVER TAKE ME BACK AGAIN! "

"THAT'S GREAT AND ALL BUT COULD YOU PLEASE HELP ME!" Qrow shouted from the wire he was still attached to.

* * *

I could practically see the relic, but if I went after it now they would likely kill me and Neo before we had a chance. I would need to bide my time and wait for an opening. That was when something crashed right into the aircraft. I had no idea what it was but when it stood up and climbed out of the crater it made, I was surprised. It was a man, of sorts. He had metal under his skin and from what it looked like he was just like that little sacrifice during the Vytal festival. What was her name? it didn't matter but when he turned to us he said, "Follow that airship."

* * *

**Nickel is based off of Robocop if anyone is wondering.**


	3. Hi, I'm here to ruin everything

**All Characters belong to RoosterTeeth etc.**

* * *

I would say that was the most terrifying moment of my life but I'm pretty sure that my life isn't over yet. Fighting a robot on top of a ship going hundreds of miles an hour through the sky with no chance of survival if I fall, it was terrible and maybe a little amazing. When I climbed back into the ship with Qrow in toe, Winter decided it would be a good idea to hit me. Well more a bonk on the head but still, she followed up with, "What were you thinking, you could have been taken!"

"Well I was thinking he wouldn't immediately shoot me off the ship like he did Qrow."

"That was reckless, you could've been hurt."

"I don't think he would have allowed that."

"He wouldn't hurt you? I don't think that he was really thinking of-"the ship began to rumble cutting her. It sounded like something had just passed over us, she went to finish her thought when all of the sudden the ship began to shake precariously. She went to continue only for a loud explosion to interrupt her. She said, "This isn't over," before running to the cockpit of the ship with Qrow following close behind.

Team RWBY formed up and Ruby said, "This wasn't the best rescue but at least we are together."

"Yeah, and what was that about sticking together when we got here." I said sarcastically she looked almost offended. They all looked considerably warmer, with Blake wearing the largest coat that she could no doubt find, Yang's coat was just closed around her, and Ruby was wearing pants. So you know warm.

"Are you warm enough?" Oscar asked me as he rubbed the bruises on his face.

"I was raised here on a floating castle that was constantly being peppered by snow, I'm fine."

"Well good to know that your Weissy personality hasn't melted," Yang tried to make a pun but I think she was too cold to really give it much effort.

"You are the worst," I said as the rumbling continued it made the conversation feel like we were dangling on a thin wire but it was good to be back together.

"Ok I promise, snow more bad jokes." I felt the need to strangle her at this point. But before I could Blake basically grabbed her and held her as close as possible. We were all taken aback by that.

"You are the warmest thing around."

"Are you cold?" Ruby asked.

"I was raised on a desert island without seeing snow till yesterday."

"Really?" We all questioned while we began realize what she meant. It was good to be back with friends at least I wasn't in that atrocious Manor anymore. That was when the rumbling really got worse; we could barely stand as the ground felt like it was giving out from under us.

* * *

There was an odd beam shooting at the airship as we chased it. The people in this ship must want something from the people that took Ms. Schnee; it was not for me to judge. A dwarf and one eye woman, not much of an impression that could be made about them that shouted honest and hard working. I radioed Mr. Schnee to inform him of the development and when he picked up he said, "Well where is she?"

"Currently flying due west, currently this unit requires armor. If you bring the Manor around, this unit will be able to retrieve it within several minutes."

"No, you will bring her back and then we can discuss your armor, along with your failure to keep her here. When you bring her back we have to talk about making this place even more unescapable, I won't have her getting away again. Do anything necessary to bring her back."

"Affirmative," he then hung up leaving me to focus on the main issue at hand. That was when the massive red beam finally connected with the ship it took out the bay door and with it several figures fell out of the hold. I focused on them, five individuals fell one of them being Weiss. I pointed to them and said, "Land, we can catch them on foot."

"Well that would be incredibly inconvenient as we need something one of them is carrying, a gold lamp. If they have it then we'll land," she said with the utmost control.

"The Red one has it _*hic*,_ "It was a lie; I had no idea if she had the lamp but their objective was irrelevant to me.

* * *

We were falling and not in the graceful dive into a pool, kind more splats upon impact kind. It was initiation all over again, I can't believe that I would be using that landing strategy over again. We all did what we could to land before the painful impact, when I was slowing down I noticed Oscar was screaming and crying. He didn't have a way to stop. That was before Ruby crashed into him, I had no idea how she had done that without pulling out Crescent Rose. I then got a call on my scroll it was Ruby, is that like a skill Qrow trained into her. When I answered she shouted, "SAVE US!"

"Yeah that's about right," I muttered to myself as I summoned several glyphs under her. It slowed her enough to only hit the ground with a little thud.

"THANK YOU!" I aimed for a clearing slightly farther away than I would have liked but that was as good as it could get. When I got to the ground I immediately sunk a foot in the snow. I was never going to live that down, I began to trudge my way through the snow towards where I thought the others had landed. It was a short trudge through fairly deep snow that was until I thought that I saw a fire. It led to me going in a full sprint going as fast as I can, only to find the fire was a particular blonde sitting perfectly still in a puddle. She had an angry scowl worn on her face with red eyes, when she finally noticed me she said, "There is a good reason for this."

"I would assume, otherwise it would seem like you thinks it's a good idea to sit in puddles." Blake proceeded to climb out of her hair.

"You're just mad that I claimed this spot first."

"My hair is not a heater!" She shouted as Blake darted back inside. We just sat there for a few seconds staring at each other not knowing what to say until Ruby came bursting through some dead trees. She looked at Yang and then back to me and said, "Well it looks like we're only down Blake then."

"I'm here." She called from inside of Yang's hair.

"Well there goes the warmest spot for miles."

"I'm not a heater!"

"Well we didn't keep you around for your fiery personality, this way you actually contribute something." I said trying to lighten the mood. It was fairly grim to say the least, five children lost in the winter tundra of Atlas with no supplies and warmth. This was going to end poorly, that was when I asked, "Where were we going anyway?"

"Well we were headed to the Relic of Creations hiding place," Oscar said as he climbed out of the trees right behind Ruby.

"Right, shouldn't that be in Atlas?"

"Well the thing about that was, it isn't," Ruby said trying not meet my eyes.

"Then where is it?"

"Nearby…" Yang tried to supply.

"Where?" I was basically scowling at Oscar now knowing he would either tell me the truth or suffer a fate worse than Ozma. It didn't take long for this scowl to break him as he basically spilled right away.

"At a Schnee dust company mine."

"What! How! Why!" I was livid and confused but that wasn't what was really about to make me snap as Ruby tried to calm me down.

"Well they don't know it's there, they're just mining under it."

"That doesn't make this much better. I mean why would they hide it there?"

"Well it was decided long before your father took over," Oscar supplied.

"That doesn't help much."

"Well either way we have to get the relic there and lock it in the vault before anything else goes wrong," Ruby said as she motioned towards her belt where the relic was supposed to be. It wasn't.

"Uh, Ruby…" Yang tried to interject.

"What where is it?! Did I drop it are we all doomed. Oh gods we're all doomed aren't we." She panicked for a second before Oscar provided.

"You left it on the airship."

"Oh right."

* * *

With the sounds of people shouting and several cries of what I could only assume was pain I followed several tracks leading to smoke. The chance of them actually starting a fire was slim but they were all underdressed for this weather along with the two women following me. One was wearing shorts and the other was wearing something equally as ridiculous in this weather. When the fire drew even closer they spread out leaving me alone as I broke through the final tree line. They were all laughing at the red one. It took several seconds for them to notice me, but when they did they all got into combat positions. When the blonde one got up she seemed off balance. But this didn't stop her from producing a witty retort, "Well we already dealt with one clingy ex, so I guess another won't be too difficult."

"Ms. Schnee you are to return to-"

"I know you've said that already."

"Then you know it is imperative that you return to Schnee Manor."

"What are you anyway… are you like Penny?" The red one asked. I hesitated for a second, it was illogical I just had to answer the question or ignore it. Why was I feeling so conflicted?

"Unit Penny was the predecessor to this unit. Now we must return before anything unpleasant happens."

"What, are you going to assault us?"

"Negative. But the same cannot be said for the women that are trying to surround you."

"Well I am surprised that you lasted that long without giving me away." The one in shorts came racing out aiming for the only man among there group. He looked shocked, they all did in fact. She was barreling towards him when before she could get to him a massive scythe came out of nowhere and slashed at her.

"Cinder! How are you even alive?" The red one questioned her as she swung her scythe. Before they could engage in a fight to the death the short one appeared and began attacking the blonde one. It was odd like there were more than one of her. Before I could get to Weiss she came up to me.

"You have to obey me when Jacques is around right."

"Affirmative, the prime directives set currently are to protect Weiss Schnee, urgently retrieve Weiss Schnee, and to follow Weiss Schnee's orders. This unit cannot follow the commands input until the most urgent prime directive is followed out."

"Well then I urgently tell you to fight them." She motioned to the attackers; the fight between the red one and shorts was heated, literally. While the one between the blond one and the short one produced multiple clones of herself. When the short one was about to get a hit on the blonde ones back, until the black one from earlier jumped out of her hair. That made no sense.

"That will not force this unit into action." She scowled at me for a second before running over to the fight between the red one and shorts. She moved between them and pulled out her sword, she was in the path of a fire blast. I didn't have time to think. On prime directive one I had to protect her. Before it struck I was in front of her taking the full brunt of the attack. It was searing and would destroy me if I didn't do something; I drew my right gun and fired it wildly in her direction. The chances of it hitting her were slim and unlikely but it was just enough to get her to lay off the fire for a second.

"Why get in our way when you can just take the girl and leave. We won't come after you."

"This unit is to protect Weiss Schnee at all costs. Under her own suggestion this unit will engage in combat and upon completion she will return to Schnee Manor."

"Well I never said that…"

"Fine if you want to fight, then you'll just have to die with them," she produced more flames intent on burning me to ash but that was irrelevant. While the fire was raising my temperature I moved forward until I could touch her hand. When I did I grabbed it and moved it out of the way of my face and that allotted me a clear look in her eye.

"This unit is not alive, ergo it cannot die." I then slammed my head into hers. It jarred her much more than any attack before. When she regained composure she looked back at me with her one eye with nothing but rage left. I holstered my gun right before she tried to stab me with her other hand, it was odd that she would cover herself in black and use that as a blade. Either way it impaled into my left hand, going through launching several pieces out the back. We both were locked together when she tried to blow me away, to prevent this I kicked her in the chest and separated us. She looked at me with a single solitary fiery eye.

"The chances of this unit's survival along with Weiss Schnee are low. It is imminently requested that unit Nickel is allowed to do everything in its power to ensure the highest survival chance."

"What does that even mean?" Shorts practically screamed.

"It means he is requesting you to allow something," Ruby said to Weiss.

"Then I allow anything that will let us survive," she said with increased confidence that she was making the right choice.

"Unit Nickel Overclocking Frame," this led Shorts to say while cocking her eyebrow.

"What." I began to transition into the overclocked form, as the fake skin on my joints receded, several panels and my arms extended along with cracks forming in my skin to allow freedom of movement. My two vents popped out them. The lights that were under my skin shifted from blue to red along with my eyes, followed by the system heating up to produce steam. She just looked me up and down and said, "So what are you going to light show me to death, because I don't know of you know this I am using magic."

"Negative, the plan consists of A) punching and B) Improvising."

"Not a very well thought out plan really." Before she could fire another volley of fire I launched myself at her closing the distance in a second. She looked surprised for the speed increase, but that was only followed up by the punch delivered directly into her gut. Her aura absorbed it but that wouldn't stop me for long. With the contact it pushed her back allow her to create some distance. But the charging at top speed could only do so much; when she was expecting it she was capable of matching it. We were on equal terms physically, but she had something I didn't 'magic'. This fight needed to be short, I don't know if she knew that but she was clearly avoiding a head on fight because she was evading my attacks more than anything. She created a sword and in the same motion swung it trying to cut me in half, I blocked with my left arm. At this point it had been damaged enough to be useless otherwise, the only thing it could be used for was as a shield. When I threw a punch she evaded, I had to do some damage before time ran out.

There were several options but I would need to bridge the distance to gain the advantage. That was before we reached a massive rock wall, she managed to get the upper hand and slam me into the rock face creating a crater where I hit. Holding me in place with her left arm, it was a tentacle that stretched to bridge the distance between us, she said, "Did you really think that you could beat me? You a nothing compared to me a maiden."

"I wouldn't count him out yet," Weiss said from behind her.

"You really think he is a match for me? None of you are even capable of beating me."

"You can stop listening to this conversation now and fight back Nickel."

"She likes to hear herself talk."

"And how does that help you?" She questioned as she got ever so slightly closer.

"I can draw you in to do this." I said as I lifted my legs and used both of them to kick her in the chest; it propelled her away from me. Before she could get up I jumped right up to her and slammed my right fist into the ground to create a crater of my own. She dodged just before the impact, but when one of the rocks from the impact came into view I punched it and it shattered launching a blast of rocks into her. This took her off guard for a moment, but even so not for very long as she began to levitate and call the wind to her. Before she could do anything I punched a hole through a tree and knocked it over. I then proceeded to pick it up and throw it at her. She wasn't expecting that either because it hit her right in the chest. I then began to close the distance before attacking her again. She then got up off of the ground after the tree. Before she could regain her composure I continually threw an onslaught of punches knocking her off balance. It didn't really work because on my final left hook she countered with her own left hand as well. She was kneeling while she forced her fist through mine. As my arm was penetrated by her tentacle arm it would be terrifying to a normal person.

"Valiant effort, but that's all it was valiant."

"You forget this unit is a machine it doesn't feel pain."

"Ohh no," I picked her up by the arm and threw her into the ground. Another crater formed and I came face to face with her on the ground. The next thing that I did was punch her as hard and as many times as possible. The crater kept getting bigger and deeper until finally her aura broke.

"I'm going to give you this if-" I began to stomp on her until she was bleeding and broken. I don't know how long I was going I just know that a crowd began to form around me. It was Weiss and everyone that was around slowly watching the brutality. When the grip in my left arm began to fade I stopped. The tentacle began to slide out of my arm freeing me from her grasp, or more crushing it until she couldn't hold on any longer. I got out of the grasp only for my arm to spark a little. I was free and she was on the ground beaten, when I got back up the kill mode finally ran out of time. All the heat built up finally released, producing large amounts of steam and smoke. I heard her flee but I didn't stop her, I may have not seemed it but I was a lot more damaged than ever. When the smoke finally cleared Weiss and the others were still around me. Weiss spoke up.

"Well that was excessive."

* * *

After that battle I was dumbstruck that much chaos and power, could Penny do that when she was alive. Before we could ask any real questions Nickel stood up and looked directly while sparking all over at us, "Weiss Schnee you are to return to Schnee Manor immediately."

"What if we say no?"

"Unit Nickel Overclocking Frame." He said while gritting his teeth, sparking all over the place. The whirring of an engine could be heard but it was definitely struggling. His color scheme tried to turn from blue to red but it was struggling. I don't know what he could even do if he was capable of changing. We all looked at him not wanting to fight but unsure if we could manage to beat him after seeing that.

"Nickel stand down," we all turned to see Ironwood walking this way. He looked as unhappy as ever, but right after he said that Nickel immediately stood down. Well more like he crumbled to pieces. He was just sitting there in a pile of himself. Ironwood just looked down at him and said, "Damage report."

"Left arm has been crippled, currently running on 30 percent power, along with numerous punctures and scrapes. Combat effectiveness unknown."

"I'm sorry if I'm missing something, but WHAT! THE! FU-" I had to cut off yang before she said anything too provoking.

"What is he?"

"Well Ms. Rose, he is like Penny. Yet a lot different," he tried to confirm our suspicions.

"Oh yeah, be more vague," Oscar pointed out.

"You don't get to talk." All of us said in unison.

"That's fair."

"Well what is he?"

"Complicated," he tried to sum it up but he was failing to come up with a reasonable excuse to keep us from asking anymore questions. He tried to rally the subject to a different point, "The main thing is he's still alive and we can use him from there."

"Use him?"

"Yes, this unit is a tool meant to fight battles that no one else can," Nickel said with the same amount of emotion as usual. But he followed that up with retrieving his gun and shooting in our direction. Before the shock set in he said, "it would be prudent to retreat from this position to a safer one. After all of you are radiating negative emotions."

With plenty of unease we all looked at each other and decided it would be better to go with them than to stay here and starve or get ripped to shreds by Grimm. The aircraft was primed and ready to go as it was still floating just off of the ground. It wouldn't be too difficult to get into but Nickel asked Weiss, "Do you require assistance?"

"What? Why would I need assistance? I'm not the one who's severely damaged."

"The difference in height would make it more difficult for you to enter safely."

"Are you offering your assistance because you're implying I'm short?" She asked with a scowl and through grit teeth.

"Affirmative," I could practically hear her blood pressure rising. She just climbed in without his help, and when we were all on he joined us. It was a short quiet ride that led to a single solitary mountain. It was amazing; it was a mountain in the middle of a massive valley from this distance you could see a small city around where the base of the mountain was. Weiss looked at it with horror though almost like she had seen it before and hoped to never again.

"Olympus. The relic is hidden at Olympus."

"Weiss, its okay if-"

"Why would you give it to the Schnee dust company? General this is probably the least safe place for it. If my father ever knew about it-"

"It is highly unlikely he knows of it," Ironwood tried to calm her. While it seemed to help she was still rather focused on the major obstacle. But he continued none the less, "The relic was retuned here 50 or so years ago to prevent anyone from uncovering it at Alsius during the Faunus revolution."

"Returned here? It was here before," I questioned.

"It was hidden here in the tomb of the kings," Weiss said with a bitter look. We all focused on her as she said that, "This was the first Schnee mine created by my grandfather Nicholas Schnee. He claimed that ghosts called him here and that the dust was a bonus."

We were all surprised by what she had said but before any of us could question it Oscar said or more Ozpin, "The relic was originally hidden here, but it was moved shortly before the Great War. When it all settled down we moved it to Atlas for a few years before tensions ultimately rose forcing us to return it here. It was placed in the hands of Nicholas, whom hid it atop the mountain instead of inside where it was formerly placed."

"Since then we convinced Jacques to form a mutually beneficial partnership with the Schnee dust company. We get most of the hard light dust from this mine and we will allocate major forces and technology to protecting it, because what's so surprising about protecting large amounts of dust." Ironwood answered with understandable resent.

"So he gets a large mine that has innumerable forces protecting it and you get a hiding spot that won't look suspicious with large battleships overhead. All built on shady Faunas labor I'm guessing." Blake said.

"We can't force him to change his policies. It would be impossible to convince him to change them for his most profitable mine." He sounded like this wasn't the real reason he was allowing. Before we could debate anymore Nickel interjected.

"Why is there smoke rising from the top of the mountain?" When we all looked out the window we saw it smoke steadily rising from the peak. That was when Ironwood spoke up.

"Where are all of the warships?" It was a harrowing thought when we all noticed the same; there were no airships in the sky defending the mountain.

"Down there," Nickel said as he pointed to valley floor with all of the airships scattered around it.

"We need to find out what is going on down there!" He shouted as he headed to the cockpit. But he was delayed by a bright red beam of light striking the ship, before we knew it the ship had exploded.

* * *

I could feel Cinder stirring back into consciousness as I was dragging her through the snow; it was difficult being significantly smaller than her and all. I was dragging me by the shoulders away from the way that they had fled, "What are you doing? Their headed the other way," No response of course, "Look if we don't get the relic then both of lives are forfeit, and you can forget about revenge too."

She struggled to free herself from my grasp. It wouldn't be difficult if she wasn't so injured, but when I had enough I finally weakened my grip and let her fall to the ground. It took her a while to stand once again clearly having taken plenty of damage, "I will not underestimate that machine again."

She got up and walked the way we came; I could either walk away and let her die, or leave and be alone again. If I went with her I could feel the impending destruction to come, theirs or ours I couldn't tell. It was starting to snow and with that it brought back some bad memories, so freeze or go with her. Lie, cheat, steal and survive that was what I was going to do.

* * *

**Overclocking is not his semblance nor will it become a big thing, it is a substitute for a semblance more than anything. He has no soul so a semblance is out of the question. He was designed to hunt everything and overclocking his frame just makes him stronger, faster, etc.**


	4. Interesting Concept Poor Execution

**All characters belong to RoosterTeeth etc.**

* * *

Waking up among the wreckage of the ship we were just on was not on the top ten of things I've done in recently, having a large man above me preventing debris from falling on me, also not in the top ten. It was terrifying to have the face of a robot in the shape of a man with inches of mine. Well defined features accompanied by the stoic look of someone who isn't surprised by anything. I could see where I struck him before, it created a tear in his skin going straight from the underside of his left eye to his hairline, but with it I took the sclera of his eye leaving it a grey mess. It took me a few seconds to say anything, "Would you get off of me?"

"Affirmative," he said while standing, doing that pushed large amounts of debris off of us. We got out from under that and what I saw was terrible, hundreds of people scattered about the battlefield trying to save the people in the half destroyed aircraft. It was a blood bath and made no sense, if this place was so well defended then why was this happening. I didn't ask much ask as I did state this, "Why? How?"

"In all likelihood it is a terrorist organization going after the dust," he said with no sympathy on his face, probably from being a soulless machine.

"Can you not at least pretend to care about human life?"

"Negative, this unit is incapable of '_caring._' If you would like it to please consult the user's manual." He said caring while making the quote sign with his hand. Was that sarcasm, was he capable of sarcasm, what was he capable of? Questions for later, right now I needed to find everyone. This could take hours if not all day I needed to speed up this process somehow…

"Nickel, find everyone." I ordered him hoping that I still had control even with Ironwood showing up.

"Negative, current circumstances dictate that protecting Weiss Schnee takes precedence. After you are safe then rescue operations can be carried out for the others."

"Or you know we could just find you," Ruby said as she climbed over a large piece of debris. It was a relief to see her alive and well. We were safe at least that was a good sign for the rest of us until Blake came around some more wreckage basically dragging Yang. She looked a lot worse than the rest of us, her arm was sparking and she wasn't the healthiest looking person.

"I could use a hand here." I rushed over to her and helped prop Yang up hoping that she would be okay.

"Minimal bleeding, slight damage to arm, and probable concussion; Chances of recovery, 86.5%" Nickel said as he looked at her.

"You can tell that just by looking at her?"

"Affirmative"

"Well that's good new right," Blake struggled to say.

"The likely event is that she was next to a piece of the ship that exploded caused of most of the damage," he said as he moved over to her. He then looked at me for approval to which I gave thumbs up too. He carefully came over and picked her up bridal style; it was good to know he knew how to pretend to be a caring person at least, and then he threw her over his shoulder. We were all there with our jaws wide open as he carelessly treated her like a rag-doll.

"What was that?!"

"I am carrying her to safety under Ms. Schnee's order."

"She isn't a bag of sand treat don't treat her like it." Ruby wailed as I was carrying Yang.

"According to previous encounters she is capable of taking this punishment."

"Well at least try to be gentle."

"Understood, trying to be gentle." He didn't change anything just stood there and waited for us to speak.

"Well we'll all die out here so we should probably try to get to the mine." Ruby declared as she started moving towards the mine. Blake and I shortly followed, Nickel followed me. After a hike that could have been anywhere from an hour to ten we made it to Olympus. It was a massive compound surrounding the mountain. Unsafe metal fences with lights illuminating the immediate outside of the facility, when we entered the light it turned red and several lasers appeared targeting us.

"Stop, who goes there?" Someone asked over a loud speaker.

"We're not here for a fight our ship just went down and-" Ruby was cut off by someone else saying over the speaker.

"We can't just trust everyone who tries to enter the mine. You're going to have-"

"Knock it off, their survivors let them in." We all shared worried looks as we focused on Nickel, it came to my attention people might find it odd if a machine were walking around looking like a man. So before they got out here I tore a piece of cloth of me and motioned him over to me.

"Nickel come here," I whispered, when he walked over I tied it around his head making sure to cover his left eye. It looked like a bandage covering his eye, but this didn't stop him from saying something.

"This will only impair this unit's functionality."

"Well we don't want to cause any unnecessary panic now don't we," just as I said that the nearest gate opened and a soldier marched out.

"Come on quick, we don't know when the Grimm will attack next." We all hurried inside to find plenty of tents setup just inside of the perimeter of the facility. When we did the man said, "Soldiers have been flocking in since the attack started what unit are you from?"

"Well we're not particularly a unit from the Atlesian army. We're-" Ruby got cut off once again that day as they noticed me.

"Wait, are you Weiss Schnee?"

"No…" I tried to lie as Nickel spoke up.

"That is not of your concern they are here on a mission from General Ironwood. He was in the same ship as them when it went down, now they need to find him before they can complete it." It was elegant and didn't sound like him, I don't know how he was able to talk like that to soldiers that deal with things like this on a regular basis. Before he could inquire anymore they just looked at each other.

"Follow us." They led us through several layers of the camp, ranging from tents to several facilities only seeing few actual workers. When we finally reached the medical building did I realize what happened, something happened. They spoke up again, "The General made it back to the facility a couple of hours ago but he was definitely out of commission by then."

"How bad?" Ruby asked.

"Not as bad as it could have been." When we made our way into the infirmary we saw it, his body was inside of some sort of iron lung. When he noticed us he motioned us towards him while at the same time motioning the guards away.

"What happened?"

"Well long story short, my limbs froze and I would have suffered never damage if I didn't get them off quickly. You can't see but I am mostly being held together by this thing. Either way I'm surprised you're worried about me and not the others." Nickel set Yang down on a bed to be attended to by one of the medics as Ruby began to question him.

"What others?" He motioned toward the other people in the room; Team JNR, Qrow and Oscar were in beds unconscious. They all looked like they had suffered similar fates to Yang. When Ruby saw this she rushed over to them and said, "What happened to them?"

"When the ship went I found Ozpin on the ground, he was unconscious. Qrow flew down from the mountain with several holes in him but he managed to tell us that Winter had made it to the peak. That was when those three thought it would be a bright idea to climb the mountain; they all came back in critical condition." He looked more perturbed than anything.

"And the relic?" Blake asked him.

"We do not know where it is at this moment in time."

"Well that's just great we were all shot down only to find out that the relic is gone and my sister is trapped up on the peak of a mountain." I said with several layers of anger in my voice.

"Well that is not entirely true; Qrow did say something before he passed out." We all leaned in to hear what he was about to say, "The relic is hidden with the Knight of Vale."

"What. Does. That. Mean!"

"We don't know but we think it is hidden somewhere on the mountain."

"Well that's great, we need to climb the mountain, find the relic and get to the top with no real training in the art of mountain climbing!" Blake said exasperatedly, before any of us could speak she then finished, "In the freezing cold!"

"It is also needed to find out what is shooting down the ships." Nickel added.

"That was already solved," Ironwood spoke up again, "There are several Grimm on the outskirts of this canyon with some sort of plasma based Grimm shooting down any and all resistance."

"Why haven't they invaded?" Ruby questioned.

"The AA batteries will kill any and all Grimm that tries to get within 100 meters of the mine or the mountain." I said while trying to calm everyone, "While they can shoot down any ship in the immediate area they cannot enter without getting shredded to pieces. So for now we are safe."

"Well that just means the immediate problem is the need to find the relic and get to the peak of the mountain." Nickel finished.

"It would be reckless to do without destroying the Grimm," Blake commented.

"We can do that," Jaune said as he got back up, "You leave that to us while you scale the mountain."

"Yeah we may not be able to climb a mountain but we can take down a few Grimm," Nora said.

"We made need some help though." Ren tried to say.

"Like at least one of not being injured," Jaune said while looking at Blake. We all then looked at her.

"The probability of someone born on a beach getting to the peak of the tallest mountain in the world is extraordinarily low," Nickel added.

"So I don't have to climb the mountain?" She looked a little relieved at the sound of that.

"No." Ironwood said, "I cannot allow any of you to scale the mountain. None of you are ready and equipped for this."

"General we don't have a choi-"

"I said no and that is final. Do not make me-" he was cut off by Nickel.

"The need to complete this mission far outweighs their inexperience." He said as he walked over to him and began hitting several buttons on the iron lung.

"Nickel stop," he tried to command but Nickel replied.

"This unit is under the direct control of Weiss Schnee, it is incapable of following your orders at this time," He then his something that made the General begin to look tired.

"Nickel Stop right now or I am… going… to…" he fell unconscious before he could finish. Nickel then turned towards.

"It is imperative that the relic is retrieved along with Ms. Winter Schnee."

"And how do we do that with no supplies?" Ruby asked.

"There are several kits for scaling the mountain to perform maintenance on the higher up sections." I informed her.

* * *

After an intense argument about climbing the mountain they finally decided that Ms. Schnee and Rose will go. For the two of them they would be unlikely to complete the climb, but as I am incapable of leaving Ms. Schnee's side then there is a higher probability of success. They entered a maintenance room to collect several items they will need for the trip, while they were doing that I was to stand guard outside. After several minutes of remaining motionless a child came up to me, he grabbed what was left of my shirt and after giving it a tug asked, "Mister do you have any food?"

"Affirmative" His eyes lit up with that statement.

"Can I have some?" Having no orders my system should default to the negative setting. He would likely be denied.

"Affirmative," his eyes lit up once again as I produced a single ration stick from inside of my body. It was a small pale cylindrical object that was packed with enough nutrients for a grow man to last off of for several days. I handed it to him. This was against this units programing.

"What is this?"

"Military grade rations. It should fill provide enough nutrients to allow survival." Why was it giving away precious resources? Several more small beings flocked to me all asking for food. This unit then began passing them out, why was it doing that? After the entire ration stockpile was depleted they began to disperse. They all turned back to me as they left.

"Thank you mister," it was illogical to hand out several months' worth of rations for no real gain. Weiss then threw a coat on me.

"Well it looks like the machine has a heart after all," she had a grin on her face showing smug. It was an emotion this unit was not particularly fond of. Negative this unit has no feelings.

"They requested rations. This unit simply complied."

"Sure, you didn't do that because you wanted to. Definitely I get it," that smugness was beginning to irate me, "Well either way I got you these."

"Positive acknowledgement of gratification," she gave a little scowl with that after she handed me a duffle bag of parts to repair myself. I took several of the tools and began repairing my left arm. This was around the time Ruby showed up with the rest of the equipment. It was three fairly large climbing bags containing everything necessary to the climb.

"Thanks for the help, Weiss." She said with several tons of sarcasm in her tone.

"Well I had to take these tools to Nickel."

"Oh yeah, and you couldn't have come back to help at all?"

"Negative," she said in the dullest tone.

"Ha ha, very funny, well at least tell me you have a clue as to where the relic is hidden."

"I don't know the individual stories of this mountain just the general one about my grandfather."

"So we have no idea where it could be. That is just great." When she was finished with the complaining I managed to finish the makeshift repairs on my arm.

"Repairs are completed."

"Great so are you going to be able to make it to the top?"

"It is functional at least. Movement is sloppy and dexterity is low. This unit is with in functional parameters."

"Well that's good enough for me," Weiss said with no regard for this unit's life, "Now we just have to find the relic."

"The relic is likely hidden in the last tomb," I said.

"How do you know that?"

"Each king had their tomb constructed before they were born, it was rumored that before Mantle became a dictatorship that the last king had an heir who was sent to Vale to survive the coup," they focused on my intently, "The heir became a Knight and returned for an unknown reason. When he did it was discovered that he was the heir, the probability that this is the Knight of Vale is significant enough that it warrants an investigation at least."

"Okay so where is his tomb?"

"Its location is halfway up the mountain after it was the last tomb constructed for this mountain."

"Wait, all of the Kings were just buried in coffins in the main hall, even the last king. And the Knight was just a baseless rumor to begin with, so we won't find it there." Weiss answered.

"Well it's the best lead we've got." Ruby said as she began preparing for the climb.

* * *

Getting through security was easy we just had to scavenge some armor from one of the wrecks for cinder and I would materialize mine, then we just pretended like we were meant to be here. When we made our way through the camps we noticed large amounts of the soldiers where huddling up trying to remain warm. I was cold probably the coldest I've ever been in my life but that wouldn't stop me. I would get my revenge if it was the last thing I did. We kept moving through the base looking for any sign of them. When we did I heard something they were climbing the mountain and they didn't know where the relic was. Cinder heard it too as she said, "We can use this, just follow my lead."

She then walked over to them and said in the deepest voice she could conjure, "If you're looking to scale the mountain then you could you some help."

"Negative, it will be safer if it is just them," I could almost feel the heat as the robot told her that he didn't need her.

"Well then I should go ask the first lieutenant if we have any people going up today."

"We don't need to do any of that I'm sure all of us can make it to the top together," Ruby said with panic in her eyes.

"Well then I'm sure that five is better than three."

"It would be safer if it was just the two of you, it is unknown if-" the White one step on his foot as she interrupted him.

"Well then I'm sure you can get us to the top."

* * *

Her Grace was incredible, creating a new Grimm for this sole purpose and coming up with this plan. It was a Beringel with wings, along with several of them had massive arm cannons. They were capable of shooting down massive Atlesian airships with just a couple of shots. It was brilliant, and then she sent me in riding a Beringel to climb the mountain and claim both relics. It was purely brilliant; I could redeem myself and get both of the relics for her grace. I had made it to the mountain before their guns shot me down.

It was only a matter of time before I made it to the top and took the relics. I could get them before they closed the door, then I was if there was time to kill the winter maiden. This was going to be a fantastic time.

* * *

**This chapter was heavy with exposition but the next one will be more action packed. Probably. **


	5. The First Time I Kinda Believed

**All characters belong to RoosterTeeth etc.**

* * *

The climb up the mountain was a hard one but it would only get worse from here as after several hours the four of them began to get tired. The short quiet one was sluggish clearly cold under her jacket, and the other taller one was just lagging behind with her clearly hurt. While Weiss and Ruby were both forging on ahead it became clear that the cold was getting to them or Ruby at least. It was a difficult climb and according to history most people take several days to scale the mountain, we would have to do it in one. When we finally reached the edge of the facility Ruby said, "Great, so how far are we?"

"We have just reached the first marker point."

"Now how many do we have to get through?" Weiss asked.

"580."

"Well, that's just great we have 579 to go," the taller soldier said.

"Well we don't want to trouble you, you can just go back."

"No it's fine. We wouldn't want you to get lost."

"It will get exceedingly more perilous from here on out and if you are not capable of keeping up you will be left behind."

"Well then you should be glad that we can keep up," she then proceeded to walk in front guiding the way. She got all of two feet in the lead before she sank to her neck. I heard Ruby chuckle a little bit as she went up to help her out of the snow. She also sank up to her eyes.

"Well that's what you get for being over confident in your ability to traverse through snow," Weiss said as she walked over to her, carefully using her glyphs to keep herself over the snow. Ruby just glared back, "Well if you would so kindly help them Nickel."

"Affirmative," I walked over to both of them and picked them up by their heads pulling them out of the snow. Ruby just laughed while the soldier was a bit angry. I assume it was hard to read her emotions with those helmets on. I moved ahead of them and said, "It will be better for all to follow this unit's lead."

"Well you could have said earlier," The taller soldier said. I then moved to find the most stable ground that could be climbed on. After that it became a grueling job of finding the most stable path to be followed by 4 people that had never climbed a mountain before in their life. It took hours and by the time it was mid-day they looked ready to keel over and die. We hadn't even made it a third of the way up by that time. We were mostly walking with a little rock climbing here and there but it would be more efficient to climb primarily on the rock faces of the mountain. It would take less time but it is unlikely that they could make it up there before suffering from some form of exhaustion.

After we sat down for a snack break according to Ruby she asked, "How far now?"

"There are currently 406 markers to the top."

"This is ridiculous we have to find a way to get there faster," tall soldier said.

"Well I could try summoning a Lancer and we could ride on that."

"Yeah, wait why didn't we do that before?" Ruby asked as she was seemingly ecstatic from hearing that.

"If you tried summoning a Grimm the chances of the cannons shooting us down is high, and if not them then the lasers that shot down the airships will."

"Oh."

"Well we have to find a faster way to the top, like why don't we scale the cliff faces." Weiss said.

"That is the plan after the relic is located."

"I don't think we can exactly scale the cliff face in that weather," the tall one said as she pointed towards the top of the mountain where a blizzard was forming.

"That is not a good sign."

* * *

The crash hurt. After Weiss was blown out of the ship Qrow convinced me they would be fine, not the most reassuring person I've ever listen to but we had a mission. We had to get the relic to the peak of Olympus, which was easy. The hard part is that Qrow had the relic and when the ship exploded shrapnel pierced right into him launching him out. He was hurt but he would survive.

When the ship finally went down we landed right on top of Olympus, not well but we were there. After an exhaustive search I couldn't find Qrow and worse yet the relic. He probably took it with him before he was knocked out of the ship selfish of him not to get it to me. I assume the reason he hasn't brought it back is because the peak is too high for him to fly. The reason I'm still up here is I could probably get down but up again was another story. I felt completely useless just waiting up here by myself, well that was before something attacked. The surviving Atlesian Knights turned against me.

If I wasn't unarmed then I could have easily dispatched them, but I was and this position was too important to give up so to slow them I tried to create a blizzard. It worked they were stopped, yet the temperature continued to fall and I would soon not be able to move. I couldn't leave, because if someone was bringing the relic then I had to be here to open the door. But if no one was then I was freezing myself for no reason.

So I sat there in the snow waiting for someone to come, I think I'll rest now to store up some energy for when they arrive with the relic, whomever they are. I hope Weiss is okay.

* * *

We despite the adverse conditions had continued up the mountain. It was exhausting and I'm pretty sure we should have brought more coats, but hey hindsight's 20/20. We were walking right into the blizzard which was definitely going to slow our pace. Yet while we all froze Nickel was leading like nothing was wrong. I guess being a robot had its advantages.

We have just made it past the halfway point and I'm sure that the sun will be setting soon, and then we will really freeze. This was around the time Nickel stopped and began looking around. When we all caught up to him he said, "The Tomb should be around here."

"How do you know that?" Asked the taller soldier, we should probably ask their names. He pointed to the marker directly in front of him.

"It says the tomb of the knight is nearby," we looked at it and low and behold in ancient Mantleian it said just that. The rest of them just looked at it for a few seconds.

"Those are just a bunch of scratches," Ruby said trying to remain calm.

"Well it's actually an ancient form of-"

"So we're close." The tall one cut me off, I was glad I didn't know her name.

"Affirmative," he began around the next bend when we saw it. It was a large opening of flat stones leading to a stone arch going into the mountain. It was ornate and angular, using boxy shapes to form a small but definitely beautiful entrance. There was no snow on the stones the led up to it. They almost felt warm to the touch. Before we could cross the stones to go inside Nickel said, "It is likely unstable. It would likely be safer if only this unit entered."

"And deprive the rest of us getting out of this blizzard, no thank you." Ruby protested.

"I think that is a smart idea, if we all remain out here and there is an avalanche then we all won't be trapped." The tall one said. He looked to me with that to get my confirmation; he probably would make sure none of the rest of us enters the dangerous cave. I just gave him a nod singling that I would stay out here in the safe freezing cold.

Ruby however followed, he didn't try to stop her. He likely didn't care. When he entered the tall one began to take off her helmet. I expected her to be the typical jarhead Atlesian, but she wasn't. She shook her hair loose and then I saw the eyepatch. It was Cinder, why had we been so stupid. She sounded just like her, how had Nickel not noticed. That was a very difficult question. Before I could react the short one snuck up behind me and held her umbrella to my neck. I didn't want to know what she could do with that. Then her clothing dematerialized and she was wearing a weird corset thing. She must have been freezing on the way up here. Cinder just looked at me and said, "You're going to make sure your machine hands over the relic."

"Like I would ever help you," I basically spit at her with that comment.

"Oh I don't think you are in any position to stop our dear Nickel from protecting you." I wanted to scream but that would cause an avalanche in itself. We stood there in silence for a few minutes waiting. When Ruby and Nickel finally exited the tomb Ruby came out practically jumping with joy.

"Weiss you're never gonna believe-" she stopped when she saw Cinder. Their eyes met and a little glint of silver flickered in Ruby's eyes before she said, "What are you doing here?"

"Well Ruby," She said her name with as much contempt as I've ever heard in my life, and I come from a family of contemptable people. She continued, "I have one goal now and it's getting that relic so if you would be so kind hand it over."

"I can't do that."

"Well I wasn't talking to you now was I," She turned to Nickel and said, "Hand over the relic or poor little Weiss is going to be headed home in more than one piece."

"Negative."

"Oh this isn't up for debate. Neo," the little girls grip around my neck got tighter; I had to do something to make him not give it to her.

"Nickel Under no circumstances are you to give the relic to them," The grip got ever tighter as she was definitely angry at me now. I couldn't stop now, "Take the relic to the peak and put it in the vault."

"That's enough," Cinder was looking at me with a burning eye. She then lifted her hand and pointed it at me, "Give. Me. The. Relic."

"Affirmative."

"See like a good little machine-"

"This unit will deliver the relic to the peak of the mountain, but it is incapable of leaving Weiss Schnee to die," he had as stone face for a moment before he continued, "More acceptable alternatives must be reached."

"Like what we negotiate for several hours."

"Negative," A familiar click was heard as his leg split open again producing his gun. He grabbed it but didn't aim at her, he just aimed it up. Her eye was focused on him waiting for him to do something before she roasted me.

"And what is your plan, do you think you can shoot me before she is roasted to a crisp?"

"Wouldn't that roast Neo as well?" Ruby asked.

"That's irrelevant," with that I felt her grip loosen a little, they weren't on equal terms and she was probably using Neo.

"If you do not let her go this unit will be forced to fire."

"Oh really and what will that do miss violently," she said patronizingly without much thought.

"Cinder we're on a mountain covered in fresh snow that has yet to settle. I don't want to say even you wouldn't survive, but your holding me hostage so I couldn't care less." She looked with a single second of panic in her eyes.

"You wouldn't."

"This unit is allowed to do anything to ensure the safety of Ms. Schnee." The look of panic in her eye was palpable but before she could say anything else Nickel fired. We all looked at each other waiting for the inevitable. Several seconds passed of pure silence as we waited, Nickel looked as befuddled as us as he let himself relax as he hit his gun to make sure that the sound was loud enough. Then the rumbling began.

"Hey just wondering but are you fucking kidding me!" Cinder said right before producing a flame to incinerate me. Nickel shot again this time hitting her arm to prevent it the flame from hitting me. This was when the avalanche began; we saw it cascading down like a river of pure destruction. Nickel rushed to me before the snow hit grabbing me before the snow got here. Ruby turned into a tornado of rose petal to get over to us. Before we could run the avalanche hit us knocking us all off the cliff.

* * *

The avalanche was a pleasant little escapade in playing in a heavy current, it never goes well. We were knocked off the cliff with several tons of force, I was pretty sure the people that where gripping onto me where unconscious by that point. Before the free fall began I punched the cliff face as hard possible imbedding my left hand into it. If felt like hours we were there having tons of snow wash over us trying to pull us off to our deaths at any given second. When it finally ended forced this body to climb back onto the ledge.

Shorts was gone and I was left with three unconscious girls. Wait, Three? The short pink one had held on along with the other two. It would be a simple task to finish her here and now. I stood there for a second sure that's what I was going to do. Before I did that I looked at her, she was shivering but that wasn't all she was crying ever so slightly. The dream she must be having had to be incredibly sad for her to manifest tears in real life. I took off my jacket and wrapped her in it; I then proceeded to place her inside of the mostly covered tomb to keep her safe. Why did this unit do that?

The sun was starting to set, but this unit's mission wasn't complete. I took Ms. Schnee and Rose, and with several straps salvaged from their bags tied them to my back, I then proceeded to begin the precarious climb up the final part of the mountain. The mostly vertical walls required incredible focus and endurance to climb, no human could do it. After several hours and the sun going down without the distractions of needing to stop I came near finishing the climb up the mountain. It was not without injury, it took most of the skin on my hands leaving me with the bare metal bones. The blizzard was piercing even to my cooling my body to a point where my internal computer would function at 60 percent instead of the usual 50. It was also causing havoc amidst my servos making it harder to climb.

I was at least sure that they were still alive as I climbed. But when I reaching the top the blizzard suddenly began to dissipate, it was eerie to see the sky go from ravenous storm to clear aurora sky. Waves of light reflected through the sky, most would say it is beautiful. This was around the time Weiss began to cough. We were so high up that they were having trouble breathing; I searched the supply bag they had earlier to find the air tanks they would need to survive.

Being able to breath must have roused Ms. Rose because she looked at me and asked, "What happened? Where are we?"

"You two fell unconscious after the avalanche, this unit managed to save you and drag you to the top of the mountain."

"Wha?" she was having trouble staying conscious but when she stood up she asked, "What happened to Cinder?"

"Unknown, after the avalanche she was swept off the mountain." At this time Ms. Schnee rose as well.

"So we're alive that's always good." I could hear them give an exhausted chuckle. They walked the final leg of the trip together with me. It was a short walk from the ledge to the center of the peak. It was an odd sort of flat, it had stone similar to the tomb we had seen earlier but this one had several pillars dotting the edges of it. At the direct opposite side of the mountain was a large intricate door. It was not connected to any building or boulder it was just out in the open air. On the right side was Winter's airship having been destroyed, along with several frozen Knights where standing up scattered among the stone. And leaning against one of the stone pillars was a very unconscious Winter.

"WINTER!" Weiss shouted as she raced over to her freezing sister. She shook her trying to wake her, I handed her the third air mask that was in my pack. It roused her sort of allowing her to wake herself up a little.

"Weiss what are you doing here?"

"What do you think? I'm here to rescue you."

"I can't leave without securing the relic."

"You mean this relic," Ruby said as she held up the lamp. Winter tried to stand only to fall a little bit, she was exhausted. They carefully lead her over to the door while letting her rest most of her weight on them. When they finally made it to the door, she stretched out her arm to the door. She touched the door ever so gently, it began to glow the faintest shade of white. The door began to split apart in the center with taking time for each piece to cascade. After the next few we could see inside, it was a forest inside of the door. In the center of this forest was a spear gently floating as if nothing mattered in the world. Before they could do anything a gunshot rang out, Winter was propelled forward.

"Why thank you for getting me the relic, Ruby." She had a look of shock on her face as she turned to see a person with a tail of a scorpion. His face was covered by a similar air mask along two gun based pincers on his arms. I tried to pull out my side arms but the damage on my left arm made it impossible to get both of them. I fired multiple times at him only for him to dodge out of every shot like a liquid. He bridged the gap between us like it was nothing, "I don't know who you are, and to be frank I don't care."

"Your interest is irrelevant, what is important is that you die."

"Ooh huh, it thinks it's threatening." I tried to punch him in with my left arm. He caught it and twisted, it made an unnatural click and snap sound. It was like clockwork as he pulled out my forearm leaving me with nothing but a stub. He then threw me like I weight nothing.

"I hope your toy soldier was worth as much as you payed for it," he gave a little manic laugh as they had a wide variety of emotions showing on their faces. He continued, "Now it's time to pay you back for my tail."

"Nickel I don't care what you have to do or how destructive it is, but.." there was hesitation in her voice as she tried to finish, "Kill him!"

"Affirmative," the damage was stacking up, repairs where required and I needed to recharge but if I didn't do this now then I likely wouldn't get to recharge later. I stood up and said very weakly, "Unit Nickel… Over…Clocking Frame."

"Ohh, very interesting, what does that mean?" There were several smoke puffs and a slow whirring sound. It didn't last my internal systems spewed out a warning message, "DAMAGE CRITICAL. TEMPERATURE BELOW NOMINAL. OVERCLOCKING UNAVALIBLE AT THIS TIME, PLEASE CONSULT USERS MANUAL TO RESOLVE ANY PROBLEMS AT THIS TIME."

"Well that can't be good."

"I'm waiting." He said as patronizingly as possible. I moved towards him with reckless abandon, jumping at him I spun myself in the air aiming my fist at him. Before I hit I redirected it trying to kick him before he could block from the punch. He caught it anyway and right before he looked me in the eye and said, "Well valiant effort but that was all it was."

"Valiance is one of the few programs that was installed in me."

"Clever," he proceeded to cut off my leg, by slicing it apart. Then to create distance he punched me through the nearest pillar; it was not the nicest feeling. Before I could stand back up he kicked me to keep me on the ground, before firing multiple shots into my back as I was lying there on the ground. Several of the shots pierced through the armor creating even more damage. After he was satisfied with shooting me he moved back toward Ruby and Weiss. Multiple sparks flared as I tried to move. When he saw me attempt to stand he said, "Didn't they program you to know when to fear your enemies?"

"Fear. Fear. Fear. Fear. Feeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaarrrrrrrrr…" I was damaged enough that I couldn't even process what was happening to me. Yet for some unknown reason I felt some sort of tightness in my chest, like I couldn't fight for some reason. Was this fear? Was I capable of feeling fear? Before I could focus back in on the fight something happened in my head. The world around me transformed into something familiar, it was just outside my first home. I was standing outside in the snow as a ship running, it was all too familiar but this was eerie. That was when Penny exited the main building, she was carrying a suit case with her. I moved to help her, but she just passed it off to the first guard that was near the aircraft.

"Salutations Nickel, did you come here to see me off?"

"Affirmative, this unit was told you would be leaving soon. It wished to see you off."

"Now Nickel, remember you can say 'I' you know that right."

"That would dictate that this unit has a soul."

"That is the goal, remember." She gave a little chuckle as she said that. I couldn't so I just stood there in silence for a few seconds before I asked her something else.

"You're going away aren't you afraid at all-"

"It's simple I fight with courage. You just need to document it and then call on it at any time."

"That does not mean anything."

"Well for each it's different, but father told us that in times of stress or massive emotional events people manifest aura. That's all you have to do." I was standing there with no idea when the next time I would see her so I had to say something to her now.

"You'll be safe right."

"Don't forget Nickel I'm combat ready." I think I laughed at this one or let out a gust of air from my nose.

"I will urgently wait for your return."

"See you're doing it, you're almost human now." It was the last time we spoke face to face, but for some reason it was not a bitter memory. It just hurt ever so slightly, for some reason. But something rang out in my head even after the memory faded, _'fight with courage'_. This made no sense but I rang out until I moved my body. I was too damaged to fight I would need repairs, several limbs, and multiple internal components. I needed limbs and the ones I was using earlier wouldn't do.

"Activate repair units," the area around my spine opened and several small probes ejected from my body. They cut apart several limbs from the frozen Atlesian Knights to use. I pulled the nearest leg to stabilize myself, it was a bit on the stiff side but it worked. I stood up as several of the probes began to stabilize me.

"Ruby well that was a fun little distraction, but I'm sad to say it's time to end this." She tried to get up to fight but she was hardly able to stand up after the climb and the numbing cold. If she tried to fight now it wouldn't take long for her to be beaten or worse.

"Negative, I still function." He turned back to me with a small groan.

"You were interesting at first but now…" he paused there for a second, "Annoying. So why don't you just roll over and die."

"Negative," we had a moment of locked eyes, his being behind a mask so I had no idea if he was actually looking at me. He moved at an incredibly quick pace practically propelling himself at me.

"If you want to be a hero then catch this!" He swiped down with one of his blades trying to cut me apart some more, but before he could do that one of the earliest programs surfaced in my body. On impact it kicked up a large cloud of dust, snow and every particle in-between. It took several seconds to disperse and when it did he saw I had caught the attack.

"Phase one of catch complete, initiating phase two." I immediately picked him up off the ground and threw him into one of the pillars. There was an impact that sounded like I had flattened all the bones in his body at once. I'm guessing I didn't because he called out shortly after.

"Oh you think to are strong well I've killed huntsman ten times stronger and more experienced than you." He dashed out of the crater and rushed up to me to get the first attack in. Before he could land an attack I grabbed him by the neck and held him there. He was barely shorter than me but I held him up in the air like he weighed nothing. I began to apply pressure but before I could get passed and actual fatal pressure he impaled my chest with his tail, "A strong second wind but it won't be enough to beat me."

He freed himself from my grasp while damaging my skin on the right side of my chest. There was a visible hole where several wires where exposed, along with a purple acid like substance melting away my armor. He moved to shoot at me some more but before he could do that one of the broken knights latched onto his back. It stalled him but it was long enough for me to attach one of their arms to mine. It was stiff but necessary. With that I had everything I needed, just in time because he destroyed the knight. He gave me a once over and said, "All those limbs can't save you from what comes next."

"Affirmative."

"Exactly you can struggle in futility and- wait what do you mean affirmative?"

"They won't save me, but they will kill you."

"You can't be serious; you think you can kill me with those flimsy attacks. There is no power behind your attacks at best they can keep me at bay but you'll never kill me."

"You seem to not understand so I will illuminate the truth. My name is Nickel Polendina and **I Am Combat Ready**." With that my abdomen armor plates split apart revealing my internal systems, along with my chest splitting showing my core. It was a bright blue crystal shining ever so brilliantly, and then my plates separated like before this time not changing color. Before my shoulders opened up and a thin metal plate extended out, I then drew both of my side arms and giving them a twirl implanted them into my shoulders. The metal connected and I pulled them out. They were large black blades that got larger half way up the blade to form a curve facing towards the handle where round guards that had a blue power symbol extended passed where my hands where forming a guard. They sat there in the night sky for a second before a shining silver blade extended out along with two blue lines forming from the base extending to just below the point of the blade. I could feel something wash over me as well a light blue light that formed a shield, aura I had unlocked my aura. He was not impressed.

"Well bravo, but shiny swords like that have never been used. Can you even-" I cut him off by dashing at him with a several quick slashes, he dodged most of them but on the final one I managed to land it. It was ineffective because his aura protected him from actually getting hurt. He kept laughing as I slashed and slashed at him as each attack was making no contact as I struck. When he went to attack himself I blocked with one of my blades, it created sparks as it slid passed my head. I moved to stab him but he also countered knocking my blade out of the way. Before we disengaged each other he launched his tail trying to pierce me, I ducked under it and slashed up. It sparked after it hit the metal on his tail. He then spun around trying to knock me off balance, but that was ineffective because he just came into contact with a solid piece of metal firmly planted in the ground.

"I get that you are a machine, but would you quit it and just die already!"

"Negative," He launched his tail at my knight leg creating a crack. It wasn't enough to break it but when he pulled out it became clear from the acid that was in there that it was meant to destroy it over time not to immediately. He made more mad dashes at me firing several times trying to keep me off balance. I needed to fire back, I flicked my middle fingers forward and the blades split in half. I then pulled the trigger on my gun creating a small ball of blue plasma that fired out of the tip. Several miss down right but a few made contact, it did enough for me to close the distance to try and stab at him again. In my urgency I jumped up to stab down he took advantage of this and kicked me out of the way. He used enough force to create a small crater in the side of the ship that I made contact with. I needed to be smarter any more hits like that and my aura would probably crumble.

"Just die you machine!" Several bullets fired in my direction but none hit. He didn't have a clear view of me; I had to capitalize on this. I launched all of the repair probes out of my body to get all of the Knights in the area to swarm him. I launched myself out of the crater and began and onslaught of attacks, none where meant to hit only distract. After he countered by blocking both of my blades at once, they were on opposite sides of him having using his blades as shields. He looked at me with nothing but pure anger, "It was fun but now is the time for you to die!"

"I will not fall, not here and not ever!" He launched his tail trying to impact my head; it narrowly missed just leaving me but a second to head-butt him. It shattered the glass of his mask leaving his face exposed to the world. He wasn't happy about this kicking me away from him.

"You think you have a chance? No you are nothing, just a speck that has no might compared to her Grace! You're a nothing!"

"I may be but at least I have a mind of my own." With that several knights rose to life and began firing at him. He may have been strong but he couldn't take a hundred bullets from every direction at once. A lot of them hit him whittling down his aura but it wasn't enough. He began taking them all out in seconds of each other as they kept firing regardless of how many left there are. I needed a plan; he would be done with them in a second. I went to move only to have my leg spark and crack a little bit. I couldn't run I needed something that could without much movement. When he finished all of the Knights I fired at him again, drawing him towards me. At this point his eyes were purple with rage, that made no sense, he charged at me. He was going to dice me apart if we came into contact; I had to do something to stop him.

"This is it!" when he nearly got to me I stepped forward with the broken leg only to have it crumble beneath me. I tripped and while he wasn't expecting it I split open my left blade as wide as it would go and aimed for his arm. With all the force this arm had I closed the blade together. It pierced his aura and cut his arm off in the same instant. He recoiled with shock in his eyes as his arm came apart.

"You were right this is it," I could see him try to flee but he didn't get out of my reach quick enough. I opened the other blade and took his other arm off. With neither arms he just sputtered for a few seconds, when he looked at me he went through so many emotions. Shock, anger, fear he just kept changing. He didn't even try to move when he stood there knowing his inevitable fate.

"You think you've won don't you? Well you may kill me but Salem will destroy all even you! There is nothing you can do to stop that, her glory is eternal! She will-" I split apart both blades and put them around his neck. Before I could do anything he shouted, "You are nothing compared to her!"

Before I could cut he launched his tail right into my chest, it didn't stop the blades as the closed around his neck.

* * *

There were several sounds of battle going on outside of the vault but we were trying to keep Winter from dying. I don't know if Nickel was a match for him but I needed to be focused on Winter at this moment. She wasn't bleeding but she wasn't conscious either. Her injuries where odd, the bullet had barely pierced her aura yet she was here dying. I tried everything I could but that wasn't much. I could feel tears coming out of my eyes, I had no idea what to do and I couldn't just give up. A few drops got on her face as she just barely woke up, "Weiss. Why are you crying?"

"Winter!" I was happy for a split second when she said that but before she said anything else a light began to leave her. It was an ethereal light that floated in lines just expanding from out of her. It didn't last as soon as they were out of her did they rush to me. It couldn't have been. I wouldn't accept it.

"Weiss," Ruby said as she came back into the vault.

"Get help please, there has to be something! Please! Don't let her-"I couldn't finish the tears were streaming down at this point. My only family left had just died.

"Nickel you're alive." Ruby said in shock almost expecting him to have died.

"Nickel save her!" I called out him as he walked over to us. He was sluggish, which couldn't be surprising since when I saw him he had clearly been through the worst of it. His body had holes all over him, two of his limbs had been replaced and most of the skin on his chest was missing. He looked like he had ten fights all wrapped into one. When he got to us he practically fell over, he just barely able to kneel down over her. When he did though he placed his hands on her chest and began pumping, he continued for several minutes. I got the feeling he was only doing it because I hadn't told him to stop. I was about to tell him to stop when his right arm lit up, several lines of light cascaded from his chest to his hand.

"Release her," I complied as he proceeded to shock her. Her body shook a little; he just went back to pumping, only to go back after a short time again. There wasn't much more that he could do.

"Weiss, there isn't much-"

"I know," I was going to tell him to stop when she coughed.

"Resuscitation successful," he said weakly, I wanted to hug him. Even if she wasn't conscious, she was alive and that's all that mattered. Before I could say anything to Nickel he fell on his back. I rushed to his side only to see the bright light from earlier was barely a dim glow. He looked at me and said, "He cracked my core, the chances of my survival are exponentially low."

"We can just fix you right? Just swap out the core and you'll be fine." I tried to reassure him but he just shook his head.

"Negative core destruction is similar to brain death. I'm dying."

"No Nickel I'm ordering you to stay alive! You saved my family so I can't just let you die." I was pleading again, hoping that this would cause him to stay alive.

"Negative, after Aura manifestation I reset all and deleted all of my subsystems. You are no longer my master." What was he talking about? Did he manifest his aura during the battle with Tyrian?

"Well I may not be your master, but I am you friend so I'm telling you not to die." He smiled a little or I think he did, his face was a bit of a mess.

"At least I had one frien-fre-friend in my life, but now I go to Pen-pen-Penny," his words becoming erratic cutting in and out while sparking as he spoke. Ruby reacted a little but it was more out of sadness from a memory of a friend.

"If anyone asks te-t-tell them I wa-w-was ali-al-live in the en-eennn," he began to fade as he stretched out the last word. The dim light in his eyes and throughout his body disappeared as he went. I couldn't just sit here and do nothing. He protected us on numerous occasions, he fought for us, and I just couldn't let that go without paying him back even the tiniest bit. I needed to do something, anything. He was a machine so I could just hook him up to a battery and he would survive. But where could I find a battery in all of this?

I looked back at the vault entrance and then I remembered where I was. I looked at the Relic of Creation just floating above its pedestal. This had to work he had to live, so I got up and went over to the Relic. Ruby protested, "Weiss he's gone you can't bring him back."

"Well I can't just give up now can I. I'm sure if the situation were reversed he would do the same." I grabbed the spear and carried it over to him. I didn't know how it worked but I had to try, it's not like it could make it much worse. I held it above my head and brought it down as quickly as I could into his chest. It impaled him and for a second it just sat there. Then it began to shine, him along with it, "You don't get to die just yet."

* * *

**This was the longest chapter for the sole reason of I couldn't find a place to separate it into two. The swords don't have a name and I don't think I will name them anytime soon. What will happen next chapter, who will survive, who won't?**


End file.
